Before I get too far into this post, let me be clear about a couple of assumptions. 1. I am an advocate of Healthcare Reform. I was disappointed in the bill that finally passed because I believe it was not a strong enough protection for consumers. Given that, I am glad we have a healthcare [...]
In 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States for the first time, I was a member of the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP) of the American Psychological Association. CAPP is charged with general governance oversight of the Practice Directorate, the part of APA responsible for promoting “the practice of [...]
Several years ago, I signed up with the federal Office of Civil Rights online Privacy listserv so I would get notifications about HIPAA. I have been delighted with that subscription over the years. If you are an organization that provides healthcare services, you too should subscribe. Today I received a new sort of notice from [...]
According to a newsletter aimed at the insurance industry, 70% of comments made about health insurers on social media sites in the past year were negative. FierceHealthPayer reports: It’s time to face the facts–the American public dislikes health insurance companies. And that’s putting it mildly, considering that 70 percent of all opinions and comments about [...]
Are you a Jeopardy fan? If you are, I am sure you know that in January of 2011, IBM’s supercomputer, Watson beat two of Jeopardy’s all time money winners, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Watson is an Artificial Intelligence that can understand questions posed to it in natural ‘human’ language. WellPoint, a BlueCross collaboration, is [...]
This morning I read an editorial (An ounce of prevention could heal a pound of pain) by Dina Overland of the FierceHealthPayer newsletter. She decided to use her platform as the editor of a newsletter that is aimed at insurance payers to directly address those payers about prevention of healthcare problems and diminishing future costs. She focused on an [...]
In the past year, the Office for Civil Rights, the federal office responsible for enforcing HIPAA privacy requirements, has finalized the rule by which all covered entities and their business associates are required to protect the personal and health information of patients they serve. The rule details the actions a breach of the privacy rule [...]
In January 2011, the American Psychological Association (APA) reported that nearly 90 percent of Americans have never heard about mental health parity or of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. In a survey conducted for the APA in December 2010 by Harris Interactive, 89% of those surveyed said they had not heard about [...]
One of the many provisions included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care reform law) was the creation of pilot programs to integrate all health care services into a Health Home. The development of the ‘medical home‘ concept will be most important among those with complicated health concerns and in vulnerable populations. [...]
Count on the National Council to keep us informed about Health Care Reform and how it might impact us as individuals or organizations. On January 6, 2011, The Council sent out their Public Policy Update giving a brief overview of the features of the law that will be implemented in 2011. Even as the new majority in the House of [...]
Last week I attended a webinar sponsored by The National Council: Healthcare Reform Expands Compliance Requirements: Prepare Now. There is a recording of the presentation at the link above. I attend lots of webinars to try to stay informed about what is happening in our industry. As indicated by the fact that I often write [...]
On Monday the National Council announced that they have won a competitive grant to provide training and technical assistance to move forward the process of integrating primary and behavioral health care services. They will provide support services and assistance to organizations that have received grants to develop integrated care within their organizations, as well as to other organizations seeking [...]
This week one of our customers experienced a “happy ending” to a very unhappy story. We thought we would share it with you. They were sure they had a good backup. When their server hard drive crashed, they were distressed but not terrified. Instead of dealing with the loss of all their data, it merely meant [...]
On Monday of this week, Seth asked me if I had a topic for my current blog. As I had none at hand, he pointed me to last week’s episode of the podcast/NPR show, Science Friday. Seth is a regular subscriber to this series and I listen when I find the time. That effort is [...]
Six weeks ago, I started writing this post. I think it is time to put finished to it. The second half of May and first half of June were a challenging time for us. Two elderly parents had acute medical needs at the same time in different cities. Both were hospitalized, one in a critical care unit. [...]
An organization called the Coalition for Parity, Inc. comprised of managed behavioral health organizations (MBHOs) has filed suit to halt the implementation of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Dominici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. This group has as some of its members Value Options, Magellan Health Services Inc., and Beacon Health Strategies Inc. As reported [...]
I have recently noticed several pieces of news that I thought would be of interest to providers of behavioral health services and others. 1. The National Council Public Policy Update of April 8, 2010 pointed out an important change in timely filing requirements for Medicare claims: Requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act makes (sic) [...]
On March 21, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Subsequently, they passed the Reconciliation Act (H.R. 4872) making changes in the original bill. After some maneuvering, all the necessary legislation was passed by both houses of congress and on Tuesday, March 30, 2010, President Obama signed the Healthcare [...]
Consider a couple of nightmares that might easily come true: 1. Your laptop, with a variety of documents and files containing confidential, protected health information on its hard drive, is stolen from your car, hotel, or disappears while you are traveling. 2. Your office is burglarized and all the desktop computers, as well as a [...]
The September 29, 2009 edition of NJAMHA Newswire reports on a trend appearing strongly in New Jersey and in many other states: attempts to provide primary care treatment at the behavioral health setting or alternatively, to integrate behavioral health treatment into the primary care setting. In fact, the National Council, the major membership organization of community behavioral health care providers, has [...]
